


Bombs Away

by Karieauthoress (ksrandomme), ksrandomme



Series: Deja Vu [1]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-23
Updated: 2009-03-23
Packaged: 2017-10-19 11:02:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksrandomme/pseuds/Karieauthoress, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksrandomme/pseuds/ksrandomme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if those four years were simply a very bad dream?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bombs Away

  
_*…Sensations//a rush of excitement, danger//feeling out of control, and conversely feeling more stable and settled than he’d ever felt before//terror//warmth, camaraderie//guilt, pain, blinding heartrending agony//suffocation, the cold burn of the water as it flooded his lungs//anger, resentment, more guilt//pain and agony again, mixed with hopelessness as he killed himself for the second time – if only in mind.//Surfacing…*_

 _*The quiet jungle grows darker blue around him, surrounding him, swallowing him in nothingness. Until a bright light before him reveals a man with a red painted face standing at the edge of the clearing. A wolf and panther on either side of him. Blair stands alone, staring at his destiny and shivering. Eventually the silence is too hard to bear and he opens his mouth to speak.*_

 _*“Is that it? Is that how the story ends?” he asks of the man before him. The other man says nothing for a moment, then he tilts his head to the side in a thoughtful manner. On his face clearly an expression of doubt.*_

 _*“It is how this path ends. There is much pain in following this path. But it comes out to the ending that is expected.” *_

 _*The answer is something that Blair has come to expect from Shamans and Medicine men the world over. He lets it slide to get to the meaty questions.*_

 _*“Can it be changed? Do I want it to change?” he asks, knowing he may not like the answer. The painted man thinks on this before answering.*_

 _*“To change is to accept a new purpose to your life. A new direction may take you completely away from your goal. Will it change so dramatically? Maybe.”*_

 _*Blair sighs. He had suspected that would be the answer. “The question is, is it worth it? And before you answer, I already know. That is up to me and my personal level of expectation.”*_

 _*The painted man nods once, a smile of satisfaction gracing his features. Blair smiles with him until something else flits through his thoughts. “In all that mess I witnessed your death. Is that fated? Or can it be changed?”*_

 _*“Death comes to all at some place and point in their life. I will take what life gives me.”*_

 _*Blair nods. Message received. If it comes, let it come. He sighs. “You know I won’t remember this when I wake up. I’m likely to screw up completely.”*_

 _*The painted man smiles as he gestures to the wolf and the panther at his sides. “Would you, young Shaman, accept their guidance in this, your life?”*_

 _*Blair takes a moment to think. The wolf gazes deeply into his eyes, blue never breaking from blue, and he sighs again. To accept the guidance of the spirits was to take on the task of setting his foot hard on the path. He could slip away from it at a moment’s notice and never know he had missed it unless he had the spirit animals to warn him. And, thinking back on what he had witnessed, he wasn’t all that excited to screw things up to the point of dying not once, but twice. Physically and spiritually.*_

 _*Glancing at the panther brought a smile to his lips. Another set of blue eyes holding his gaze long enough to make a solemn promise to help, should he so choose. The earnest expression calms him in some way and he contemplates a life filled with spirit animals mysteriously guiding him along his path in life. Finally breaking the intense gaze, he turns back to the painted man with a grin on his fresh face.*_

 _*"Guidance, sure. Hell I wouldn't mind the two of them outright interfering if it would help me avoid some of what I saw." Blair says wryly. The painted man holds up a hand.*_

 _*“Be careful in what you do, Young Shaman. For every path can still lead to some of the same obstacles in life. There are things in life that cannot be avoided. Simply remember your true goal in life and all else will fall into place.” He waves a hand towards the animals. “And they will give you all the guidance that you require from here until your next life and beyond. Accept them, and they will steer your footsteps.”*_

 _*Blair nods solemnly as the animals begin to move from their places to either side. They each circle him twice and come to stand before him. Then, with his arms open wide, Blair accepts first the wolf and then the panther into his chest. Once the flashes of light have dissipated, he turns once again to the painted man. “I look forward to seeing you again someday, old man. What will I call you?”*_

 _*The painted man smiles as he steps forward to place a hand on Blair’s chest. “You will know me when I have passed on the way of the Shaman to you in the future, Young one. Now I must go and await your Sentinel. Go, take your first steps on the path and find the learning place in your dreams. And remember your goal.”*_

 _*Blair nods once and then blinks his eyes closed when the painted man disappears in a brilliant flash of light.*_

o-O-o

Quinault Indian Nation – Summer 1985

Blair Sandburg awoke from his Dream Walk refreshed and renewed. To his right sat the old Medicine man, Okana, with wet eyes and a slow smile. Blair blinked, thinking about the dream he had just walked. It wasn’t a bad thing, this vision of the future. But it wasn’t exactly good either. There was lots of pain and fear mixed and mingling with the good stuff, and the young man was uncertain what he was going to do about it.

“So, little one,” the old medicine man’s voice broke through his thoughts and he turned to face him with respect. “What do you think of the path that has been set before you?”

Blair settled back, his legs crossed and his hands resting lightly on his knees. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he caught a blur of gray motion, but when he glanced there it was gone. He shuddered lightly. “I’m a bit unnerved by the death, the dying.” He paused for a breath, trying to decide if he should say what he wanted to. Then fatalistically he decided and blurted out, “Frankly, I’m not sure why I was there most of the time, what with my previous upbringing and all.”

The old man nodded knowingly. Having met Naomi Sandburg days before, he could imagine what she of the free spirit walkers would think of her youngling even talking to men of justice, such as the man in the young Shaman-to-be’s dreams. It did not promise to be an easy walk on this path. But he had seen the trials that the young one would endure and survive. He felt deep in his bones that when the time came, the young one would persevere even in the face of his mother’s animosity.

Blair hid a grin, pretty much certain he knew what made the old man smile. Naomi was known to rub anyone the wrong way at times. Especially men of power and control. She enjoyed turning their heads and dropping them flat. It was an old habit - a bad one. Blair knew that she was working hard for understanding, not just in herself, but for others as well. It wasn't easy though and it was going to take years. In the darkest of nights she would confide in him her pain and sorrow at not finding her true love, always pushing others away in her search for enlightening and self truth. He didn’t try to stop her, how could he at his age.

But Naomi’s drive that everyone be allowed to follow their destiny was allowing him to go to Rainier University in Cascade, Washington. And so he was happy. But he knew it was going to be lonely work, long stretches of time in which he would often feel deeply alone, unless he conformed to the social norm a bit better. It would be something for him to work on, fitting in while still holding to his own unique individuality. What a balancing act that would be.

Blair caught another blur from the side and he twisted his head around to try and catch it, only to come up empty once again. “They aren’t going to let me see them, are they?”

The old man glanced curiously in the direction the Blair was looking. “What do you think you see, young one?”

“The spirit animals,” replied Blair. What else would he be trying to see? “They are supposed to be guiding me, but they keep hiding from me.”

The old man stared at Blair strangely. “There is nothing there, young one.”

Blair sighed. “Of course not now. They are hiding. He said that I would be guided by them to follow the correct path in the future.”

The medicine man dropped his jaw in shock. “Who said?”

Blair blinked at him. “The painted man in my dream. You were there, you saw him.”

Okana closed his mouth in thought. Finally he gazed deeply into Blair’s eyes and spoke. “Young one, I saw no one else with you on the dream walk. You walked alone on the path. I saw the future laid out before you and know what will happen just as you do.”

“What could happen,” corrected Blair. “Unless I make different choices when the time comes, that is what will happen. But I can change it.”

Okana closed his eyes briefly, his head bowing forward and his hands resting in his lap. When he spoke again, Blair nearly fell over, so silent the man had been just moments before. “If you change it, will you still die by the hands of the blonde woman? Will you still behave in the same manner to the bedmates in your path? Will you still take the way of the peacemaker as your mother wishes you to take?”

Blair opened his mouth to speak but was over-ridden by the older man before he could draw breath to do so. “If you change your path, will it be for the better, or will it be too much for you to control, young one? You play with fire when you tackle destiny.”

“Or perhaps it has been in me to control that destiny all along! What if the future you and I witnessed was due to slipping from the true path? What if the choices I made in that future could have been changed and I could have walked a better path to the same ending, or a better ending!” Blair jumped quickly to his feet. “How do we know that all the pain, betrayal and mistrust was the true destiny? What if I was meant for something else! What if my path to being a Shaman is blocked by the mistakes I make in THAT future, and I could fix it here and now, knowing what I know?”

Okana watched as Blair fought to control his anger, settling back in his place on the mat by the fire that had been warming them in the dark night. The wind in the redwood cedar trees, the ‘Tree of life’, spoke to them and broke the stillness around them. Blair stared up at the tree tops, his eyes searching for the stars that he could barely see between the branches as they swayed. “What if that was my only warning?”

Okana smiled as Blair looked back at him. “You believe the dream is showing you mistakes you have not made yet?”

Blair smirked. “I believe the dream was giving me a choice. Walk blindly along making choices without consequence, or take the time and actually make the right choices. Right now, I’m still young. You keep calling me the Young One, and I am. I’m immature and unlearned. I’m going to have trouble wherever I go unless I get a handle on this now. But I am still a kid.”

“A child who is about to step into a world that he may not be ready for…” intoned the old man.

“But it’s my choice to make. Maybe the dream here, in this time and place, is the universe‘s chance to show me what I could be screwing up. I can’t deny that chance; I’d be a fool to pass up the opportunity to change mistakes before they happen. Let's face it, what I saw has me utterly terrified - but only partly because of what happened. The other part that has me feeling so scared is the way I kept just letting things go... somewhere in there I have to stand up and be counted. If I don’t take the chance given me, I’ll simply be another body in the road.” Blair stared back at the old man. “I can’t be a bump in the road of life, man. I have to try and do something to make it all come out better than it did. I see a man, the man I will be and the man I could be, but a man who has choices in everything.”

The old man sat in silence a moment before speaking again. “And what man will you be, Young one?”

Blair closed his eyes in thought, searching for an answer in his own heart. The answer came in the form of a fierce howl, a cry to the moon, a hunting call from the wolf in his soul. He opened his eyes and smiled. “I will teach and be taught. I will heal and be healed. I will fight and protect… I will be the best I can be… but I will only see what I have become after I have walked the path.”

The old man nodded once. “You will most likely forget this dream, young one,” he reminded Blair. He nodded.

“Yes, but… I think, that because I accepted the guidance of the spirits, I will be reminded, when the time is right.”

The old man grinned. “You are wiser than your years tell, young one. Yours will be an adventurous path. You will know much fear.”

With those words, a light breeze swept through the trees and a mist fell to the earth, blanketing the two men, one young and one old, in a cold and wet state quickly. Blair sighed as he and the old man began to pack their gear and head back to the long house where his mother waited for him. Tomorrow he would go to Rainier and start his journey into academia, but not that night.

No, that night he dreamed. He dreamed of black panthers and grey wolves chasing each other in and out of dark shadows, stepping out and onto the shining path, and then fading away into the mists in his mind.

o-O-o

Cascade General Hospital – October 1994

The curly haired young man with the bright blue eyes and generous smile strolled into the main lobby of Cascade general and paused a moment, scanning left and right until he found the person he sought. Candi glanced up from her stack of files and smiled when she saw him.

She had been seeing Blair Sandburg off and on for about a week now, and he was always there when she needed a distraction. Like now. She had about a dozen patients to see after lunch but, glancing at her watch, she noticed that she had a good fifteen minutes to spare for her golden boy Anthropologist in training.

“Blair,” she called happily, grinning like the proverbial cat who got the cream as he smiled back at her and quickened his step in her direction. He slowed as he came up to her side, his eyes alight with a mischievous glint that told her he was playing hooky from something. “What are you doing here today?

“Thought I would come and distract you from your hours of drudgery for a quick break… know any place we could… you know… do a little studying?” one hand on the small of her back and he was sidling up beside her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He licked his lips as he drew her close, nuzzling his nose in her hair when he thought no one was looking. She laughed lightly.

“And just what are we studying?” she asked as she drew away from him gently, grabbing his hand and leading him in the direction of the Nurse’s lounge around the corner.

He ducked his head and grinned widely. “Tactile response to outside stimuli on the human body, and the feelings it evokes to the human heart…” he replied dreamily. She glared back at him as the door opened and they slipped inside.

“In other words, you want to do some necking in the dark?” she asked cheekily. He grinned again at her question, his hot gaze sweeping her body was the only answer she needed.  
Neither of them noticed that the door hadn’t closed completely. Neither of them particularly cared either as Candi set her stack of files on a low table next to the leather couch under an open window. In moments, they were both on the couch, rubbing delightfully against each other and kissing wetly, without a care in the world. They were so involved in what they were doing, with and to each other, that they didn’t hear the commotion in the hallway, not even when it came level with the door of the room they were in.

So, it was quite a shock to them both when the door banged open and the room was suddenly filled with the commotion from the hallway. Two blurs of motion careened into the room, swarming and bouncing off walls, tables, chairs and any other surface they could possibly use. Blair leaped to his feet and tried to catch one of the blurs, while Candi dashed out of the way with a screech!

Unfortunately trying to catch one put Blair in the position of being used like a launch pad like the rest and so he was soon summarily dumped on his butt for his pains.

Candi, having gotten out of the way like a sensible person, was able to properly focus and see that the blurs were two furred creatures - one a large black cat and the other a grey dog - chasing each other around the room. ‘Uh oh, whoops!’ “Blair watch it!”

She yelled just in time and Blair ducked as the cat suddenly leapt over him, clearing the young man just getting back to his feet, and landing on the table with the files. Effortlessly using them to spring board off to arch out the window and vanish from sight in an instant. The dog, not to be left behind, followed on the cat’s heels and was soon gone too, leaving devastation and flying paper in its wake. Blair stood, stunned by what they had just witnessed.

“Holy shit!”

Blair looked around, a slow smile slipping to his lips and a chuckle resounding in the silence of the room following that proclamation from the pretty nurse. Candi glared at him and he tried to stop. But she soon realized that, she too couldn’t hold the smile off her face and she burst out laughing with him as they struggled with the files that had been scattered by the two animals.

Working together, they soon had the files reorganized and were settled back on the couch when an older, portly nurse came in looking for the missing animals. Blair stuck his thumb out and pointed in the direction of the escape and the woman was soon off, muttering something about children’s ward and crazy critters. Blair glanced at Candi and they both laughed again.

“I’m guessing they were from the animal shelter, brought in to cheer up the cancer patients in the children’s ward.” Candi said as she shifted the files in her lap. Blair glanced at the stack and caught his gaze on the topmost file. Fingering it, he glanced back up at Candi.

“Hey Candi? This guy here… is he still in the hospital?” Blair asked gently. Candi looked at the file he indicated and flipped the front cover open, glancing at the notes in question and shaking her head.

“He’s outpatient. But look at the notes and tests he’s been doing! God, Blair, he looks like a candidate for your Senses study, doesn’t he?” She looked back up at Blair, who still stared at the file in her hands. Her hands closed the file and she thought for a moment. “You know, I’m not really supposed to let anyone see these except for the doctors and the patient himself. But I could copy some of it down for you, if you like?”

Blair snapped his eyes back to hers and stared for a long moment in time. Finally he came to some sort of decision and stood, helping her to her feet as he did so. “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea. You could get into trouble. But you could do something for me.”  
Pulling a card out of his pocket, he handed it to her with a grin. “Next time he comes in for tests, give him my card. Ask him to see me. Tell him anything you want, just try to get him to my office on campus, ok? I would owe you big time, Candi.”

Candi waved off his words with a smile on her face. “Think nothing of it, Blair. You were such a big help to me with the tutoring last month. I can do this for you without you owing me a thing. Call us even.”

Blair nodded as she headed out the door again, files firmly in hand. She glanced back at him a moment, her mind deep in thought. She could never know that it would be the last time she ever saw him. But he had filled her days with sunshine, and her nights with bliss, for some time. And thinking back on it later, when she had graduated in status and moved on with her husband and their twin boys, she would honestly be able to say that Blair Sandburg had given her a gift during that two weeks. One she would never forget.

o-O-o

 _*Blair leaned against the desk in his office, his eyes alight with joy as he spoke to the man seated before him. He grinned hugely. “You see, there's this nurse I've been....you know...tutoring at the med center. She saw your chart and she faxed it over to me. And when I read that thing, man, it was like -- Bang!, Holy Grail time.”*_

 _*He clapped his hands with enthusiasm. Yet the man he spoke to appeared bored with the theatrics and gazed back at him through half-lidded eyes.*_

 _*“You're losing me, Chief…” he drawled with feigned annoyance as Blair gulped, taking a deep breath and attempting to return to earth. He decided to start over and blinked before explaining.*_

 _*“Okay, um...my name is Blair Sandburg. And I'm working on my doctorate in Anthropology and you just may be the living embodiment of my field of study. If I'm correct, Detective Ellison, you're a behavioral throwback to a pre-civilized breed of man.” Out of breath, he gazed back at the older man, mentally willing him to understand what he was trying to convey.*_

 _*“Are you out of your mind?” The man stood up suddenly, and Blair was struck by just how tall the man was, and wide, and angry. “ You dragged me all the way over here to tell me I'm some sort of caveman?”*_

 _*Blair tried to backpedal a bit, running into the shelving behind him with a thump. “Well, maybe I was a little out of line with that caveman remark, but I mean...”*_

 _*The man, Jim, lifted Blair by the front of his shirt and slammed him bodily against the shelving, causing the structure to shudder and various papers to fall around him as the cop growled in his face.*_

 _*“Listen, you neo-hippie witch doctor punk, I could slap you right now with larceny and false impersonation and you are heading real quick into harassing a police officer, and what's more your behavior is giving me probable cause to shake this place down from top to bottom for narcotics.”*_

 _*Blair blinked and gulped, his hands reflexively squeezing the broad shoulders of the cop as his mind went into over time trying to find just the correct words to say to calm the man down in a hurry. He chuckled lightly, attempting to defuse the intense situation. “Hey, Joe Friday, relax, okay? Look, you mess with me, man, and you are never gonna figure out what's up with you. “ Jim released him and walked away. Blair continued to speak. “Now I know about your time spent in Peru and it has got to be connected to what is happening to you now…”*_

Blair sat up quickly, the dream fixed behind his wide blue eyes as he struggled to full awareness. The darkness around him was nearly complete and he had trouble remembering where he was until he heard the snap of one of the traps deep in the night, reminding him of his unwelcome roommates.

‘Ok that was just… too weird.’ He thought as he blinked his eyes to adjust to night vision. He glanced over at the clock beside his bed, groaning when he noticed the lateness of the hour. He had an early class the next morning, and he needed all the sleep he could get. But the dream was so fresh and vivid in his head that he couldn’t ignore it.

He cast about for his glasses, finding them in the dark and fitting them to his face as he pushed his long hair off his forehead. He had started growing it only months ago, because a girlfriend liked something to hold on to when they were… didn’t matter. He had grown it long and liked the results. Plus he knew his mother would howl with glee when she saw it. He could almost hear her now, nattering on about the 60’s hair and retro stuff.

But, imagining his mother brought up something else. Thinking about her, he suddenly had the urge to call her. Immediately. His hand reached for the phone just as it rang, shattering the near silent night and instantly upsetting Larry, who slept in his cage on the other side of the room. Blair snatched up the phone and turned on the nearest light.

“Hello?” he answered hesitantly.

 _*”Hi Sweetie! It’s Mom, how are you?”*_

“Um, Hello Naomi, I wasn’t expecting you to be up at this hour…” he trailed off dumbly, acutely aware that he had been about to pick up the phone and call her himself.

 _*”Well, I was meditating and had the oddest urge to call you, I hope I didn’t wake you?”*_

"Um no, I actually was about to call you." He admitted sheepishly. Naomi laughed.

 _*"I guess I picked up on your vibe that you wanted to talk sweetie,"*_ she said indulgently. Then she continued softer, obviously having twigged that something was bothering him. _*"So what were you wanting to talk to me about? At this time of the morning especially?"*_

Blair sighed, his mother knew him so well. Almost too well, it seemed. But he wasn’t about to let those thoughts slow him down. Carefully, he sat up fully in the bed, his sheets pooled around his waist as he took in a deep, shuddering breath. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I had a dream…”

 _*”What sort of dream? Unusual? Confusing? Prophetic?”*_ Naomi cajoled. Blair stared off across the room for a moment, deep in thought as he remembered the dream. He blinked when he thought he caught sight of dark blue eyes set in the face of a laughing grey wolf, tongue lolled out as it panted, staring at him with a quizzical expression on its face.

“All three…” he whispered. “I dreamed of the wolf…”

From the phone in his hands there was silence. “Naomi?” he called out, checking to see if the connection was still there.

 _*”I’m here Sweetie...”*_ her words were haltingly slow and with just a hint of concern to them. _*”Blair, when you were fifteen, sixteen or therebouts... well it was right near the time you were about to start at Rainier anyway, you went to that Reservation - The Quinault one - do you remember that?"*_

"Yeah," Blair answered slowly as his mind drifted back. "I met Okana there, he led me on a Spirit Quest in the old style."

 _*“Do you remember anything about the dream you had? You said there was a wolf and a panther, and that you had to watch where they led from now on. That in the future they would be your guides…”*_

“On my path to my destiny! Oh my God, Naomi, I remember some of that.” Blair leapt to his feet, stumbling on the bed cloths as he shuffled to find a place in the room to start pacing.

 _*"You tried to tell me back then about it, but you were so hyper I couldn't follow it at all... do you still remember? Could you tell me now?"*_

He paced towards the fridge in his small kitchen, turned and walked to the TV before doing it all over again. “I don’t know, Mom. It was years ago, and I was still a kid then.” He sighed loudly, venting his frustrations.

 _*“Well, what did you dream tonight? What do you remember?”*_ Naomi asked gently. Blair sat on the edge of his bed, fighting to focus his mind on the dream he had just moments ago. Slowly, through fits and starts, he explained it all, everything he had dreamed and about the feeling of having to talk to someone about it. When he was finished, Naomi was silent and again Blair was afraid he had lost connection with her. Suddenly she piped up and he could almost hear the grin in her voice. _*”Sweetie, this man in your dreams, you called him Joe Friday? Is he a cop? He certainly sounded like one.”*_

“Yeah, I guess...” Blair acknowledged carefully. “Why?”

 _*“Simple really. There is no way that this dream could really be prophetic. I mean, after all the trouble we had with the pigs when you were a kid, you wouldn’t actively go out seeking a cop for your dissertation! It must have been something else you had seen or heard bleeding into your subconscious!”*_ Naomi sighed and Blair could tell from the sound that she was ridiculously pleased with herself. He shook his head silently as she nattered on about cops being rude and horrid and how he couldn’t possibly be associated with one in the future. He struggled with the urge to not scream as she went on to console him over his obvious nightmare for some wrong that he perceived he had done in order to be terrorized by this dream, and then she was suddenly gone, the phone clicking off.

Blair stared at the silent phone in his hand, his mind whirling. But one of the things she said before she rang off struck him - _*"Maybe sweetie, what you need to do is to meditate and clear your aura. Get back to your basic self."*_

That, at least, made some sort of sense. He stood, replaced the phone on the charger and opened the drawer that held his candles, setting them in an arch before him on the coffee table and setting about lighting them, grabbing the stereo control and turning on music that would aid him in his spiritual walk.

Once he felt he had everything he needed in place, he plopped down into a lotus position and relaxed, breathing in and out, striving for peace and concentration on his breathing, falling into the state that would allow him the best view of himself. Hell if he did this right, it would be like getting a good night’s sleep while spring cleaning his head.

o-O-o

The next day, as Blair sat quietly in his office, he thought about the vision he had dreamed about the previous night. He was certain it was a vision now and not a nightmare as his mother had suggested. During his meditation he had felt the wolf, so near to him that he could almost reach out and touch it. It was a comforting feeling to know that the wolf was there to show him things. He had always felt close to wolves in his younger days, he just never understood why. But now, with the image of the wolf’s eyes burned into his memory, he felt he understood the message that the wolf was trying to convey.

In his vision, he had been brash and bold. His speech had been quick and bubbly, not that of a serious Professor in training. He was hoping he would soon be speaking to a fairly educated man, yet in the dream he had gone on like some teenager, bursting with enthusiasm, but little information. That would never do.

When he had arrived at his office after his morning class, he had gotten a message that a James Ellison wished to see him and had made an appointment with Nancy at the Student Union’s office. The gentleman would be coming in the late afternoon, after office hours and Blair was determined not to screw this first meeting up. He had heard the wolf howl when he had gotten the message and knew he was on the right track. This Ellison could be the man he had been waiting for. He was just not too sure what his first words should be.

Now he sat, looking over blue books and grading papers, trying to not waste time and contain his nervousness as he waited impatiently for office hours to be over and James Ellison to arrive!

The clock on his desk just clicked over to 5 pm when he glanced around and noticed there was no place for the man to sit once he got there. That would never do, and he was up in a flash, clearing papers off of chairs and setting them on the shelves in the back of his office, clearing space for conversation, or confrontation depending on how well the talk went. He was in the middle of opening up Burton’s book _*The Sentinel’s of Paraguay*_ , when there was a knock on the door, and the man he had been waiting for all his life, stepped through the doorway, into his world and his life.

His mouth went suddenly dry. Damn, he knew from his dream that their 'other' encounter hadn't gone well, he'd come across as some kind of crazed teenager on speed - or whatever the chemical of choice was nowadays. This time, he's just standing like a dork, okay make that a nervous dork. Taking a deep breath he tried to control the impulse he had to jump up and grab the man, bring him inside and throw it all out in the open. He came around the desk and held out his hand.

“Hi, um… you must be James Ellison. Come on in, glad you could make it.” He took the man’s hand, shook it once and then held on, drawing him into the office and to the nearest clear chair in the room. The man, Ellison, didn’t argue but allowed Blair to lead him wherever he wanted. He seemed a bit dumbfounded, as if he were missing something, and Blair supposed that he did. This meeting was as different as he could make it, choosing to calm the man rather than to excite him with the prospect of being a Sentinel.

Ellison relaxed in the softest chair that Blair had in the office, glanced at the overflowing shelves and desk before him, then back at Blair. He knew what the man was thinking. “Sorry, the place is a dump yeah. But I’m the only one that understands half of what’s in here so they let me use available space to meet students. I’m a TA here at Rainier and I sometimes have to have offices hours available to tutor or instruct students one on one.”

The man nodded once, visibly relaxing at the controlled banter that Blair was forcing himself to stay close to. Blair smiled silently before introducing himself. “As you may have noticed from the sticky note on the door, I’m Blair Sandburg. I study Anthropology here at Rainier, and teach. I’m working my way through academia and my doctorate.”

Blair took a breath, forcing the excitement back down. ‘Okay, so far so good.’ He had said that without wavering or squeaking, and he felt impressed with himself, although the man before him didn’t seem all that impressed. He swallowed as he went on. “I’ve been working on a study of people with enhanced senses. There are documented cases of people with one or two senses, like taste and smell, people who work for coffee and perfume companies. And of course, you know the reports of Vietnam, the Army long-range recon units that had to change their diet to fish and rice because a Cong scout could smell a Westerner by his waste.”

Now Ellison was showing some interest in what he was saying. He sat forward, his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped under his chin, actively listening to what Blair was saying. He smiled genially when Blair stopped. “What does this have to do with me, Chief?”

Blair blinked. Why had the man made the appointment with him if it wasn’t about wanting his help with his senses? It made him wonder just what Candi had said to the man when giving him Blair’s card? Obviously not much, not if Ellison was asking what all Blair’s research had to do with him.

Or maybe, Blair had a brainstorm, Jim was trying to figure out how much Blair knew about him! His paranoia had to have gone off the scale when out of the blue a nurse at the hospital had handed him a card after all the doctors told him they couldn’t help, and said ‘go see the guy on the card’. Then after making the appointment and arriving, he’d been feeling out the long haired crazy guy with the wild colored vest and hippy overtones who’d started to talk about people who could some of the same things he could. Of course he would be playing his cards close to his chest. Blair needed to think. He had to be very careful here, phrase things just right.

“I’ve been doing this search every since I received my Masters. You see, I believe that if there is this many people with the capability of having one or two enhanced senses, then somewhere that no one has looked before, there might be someone with all five senses enhanced.”

Mentally Blair yelled at himself _*I am not going to say primitive, I am not going to imply pre-civilized, I am NOT going to get this man mad at me!*_ But he was almost certain that it was about to slip. He was going to have to mention Burton soon, and he dreaded it in some odd way.

Ellison sat back in his seat, gazing at Blair with a watchful eye. Blair took another deep breath and decided to lay it all out on the table. “Look, I know you don’t understand why I would want to speak to you, but… I was told about your troubles by a Nurse at the Medical Center.”

And that’s when the soft smile vanished and the hard edged cop came into focus. Blair flinched. Damnit, he hadn’t wanted to alienate the man, but he didn’t know how he was to bring up the topic without telling the truth.

“She’s a friend that I helped prep for a test a while back and she knew about my studies. She always said that she would keep an eye out for any severe cases, like yours, that didn’t have any answers. She didn’t show me your records or anything, just told me about the tests they were doing on you. So I gave her one of my cards to give to you-”

Ellison stood suddenly, his face a mask of anger. “I do not have a problem, Sandburg. So let’s get this straight, for the record, you were sleeping with some pretty nurse and she slipped you my confidential files. “

Blair leapt to his feet, his hands out in a placating gesture. “No, look. She just told me about your troubles, that’s why I gave her the card for you, she told me nothing about what the tests said! But I bet I can imagine it. Hear me out here. Loud noises that shouldn't be loud. Smelling things that no one else can smell. Weird visuals. Tastebuds off the map, right?”

Ellison growled as he took a step towards Blair. “That's all in my chart. The one you said you didn’t read.”

  
Blair backed against the shelf and felt the papers fall around him as Ellison took a step further, pinning him against the wall with his laser-like stare. “Yeah, but I bet I can add one more thing. A hyperactive tactile response.”

Ellison stopped, uncertainty clouding his eyes. “A what?”

“Extra sensitive touchy-feely lately.” Blair clarified. Ellison’s eyes grew wide as he grasped the front of Blair’s shirt and slammed him up against the shelves behind him. Blair closed his eyes. Damnit! He had done it again! Could he get nothing right? He drew in a healthy breath as he struggled to construct a defense to whatever the man was going to blast him with.

“Listen, you neo-hippie witch doctor punk, I could slap you right now with violation of personal rights, with intent to defraud, and buddy you are heading real quick into harassing a police officer! What's more - your behavior is giving me probable cause to shake this place down from top to bottom for narcotics.”

Blair closed his eyes again. The words may have changed just a bit but the feelings were still there. He took another deep, cleansing breath and opened his eyes, gazing steadily into the blue eyes that felt cold as ice as they raked across his. He could rant and rail against the man, but that wouldn’t build the trust that he felt was missing here. Instead he kept his voice modulated to a calming tone as he spoke.

“I know you’re probably confused and uncertain about everything I am saying here. I don’t mean to sound like a flake, but it’s difficult to explain this without sounding just a bit wild. I mean, it’s not like this is an everyday occurrence. This is a once in a life time opportunity for me, and it could mean your whole existence.” He took another breath and switched tracks in his mind.

“I looked you up, Mr. Ellison. I know about your time spent in Peru and the success and failures of that time. It is most likely connected to what is happening to you now. Please listen to me and maybe I can help you understand.”

Ellison’s eyes scanned Blair’s eyes for, truth? Yes, most likely Ellison was seeking honesty in his eyes. And Blair could provide honesty. It was his best way of controlling the situation. Slowly Ellison released Blair’s shirt and let him back down to the ground. He shrugged his shoulders to fix his clothes and smoothly flowed around the bigger man, sweeping up the book from his desk and preparing to hold it out to the other man, but stopped.

Instead of showing Ellison, he would simply give him the facts. The man was a detective, let him deduce it all for himself.

“This is a monograph by Sir Richard Burton, the explorer, not the actor. It's over a hundred years old. I found it when I was a first year grad student. It tells the story of tribal cultures that he visited in Paraguay who had a person who was the Watchman of his tribe. Burton called him a Sentinel.”

Ellison stepped closer, trying to look at the book upside down. He listened with half an ear as Blair spoke. Blair smiled faintly as went on. “This person patrolled the border-“

“You mean a scout?” Ellison interrupted.

“More than that. Sentinels would watch for approaching enemies, change in the weather, movement of game. Tribe survival depended on him.” Blair turned the book slowly, showing Ellison the picture in the book. The man stared at it intently. “A Sentinel is chosen because of a genetic advantage. A sensory awareness that can be developed beyond normal humans.”

“Like me?” Ellison asked.

“Like you,” clarified Blair. He smiled again.

“So let me get this straight, Doc. You think that my senses could be like this genetic throwback thing? I’m like these guys in Burton’s book?”

Blair grinned. “Well if that's the way you want to phrase it... but not exactly man. I don’t think you’re a knuckle-dragging caveman or anything like that. I think that you are a unique gift to the modern world.”

Ellison relaxed suddenly, totally poleaxed by Blair’s response. Blair smiled closed the book and placed it on the desk again. He then settled back on his desk, drawing his legs up to sit lotus fashion with Ellison going back to sitting in the chair before him. “Jim… may I call you that?”

He nodded and Blair smiled again. “Jim, I’m not saying you’re Superman or something. You are normal, it’s genetics, DNA… you are not a freak. You have these gifts for a reason; you just haven’t seen their whole potential. That’s going to take time and testing. You have to learn to control them.”

“What if I don’t want them?” Jim asked suddenly. Blair stopped, his eyes closed in thought. This was a tough question, not made for a flip answer.

“If you want them gone, I’ll research it. But everything I have read to date tells me they don’t just go away. Not without a lot of heartache. If we do end up going that route, I’ll help you. But if you decide to keep them, we can do that too. It’s your choice.”

Jim nodded once but said nothing else about it. Blair relaxed marginally. Outwardly he radiated as much calm as he could. Inwardly he was shaking like a leaf. He didn’t know why, but the thought of Jim without these awesome powers set off a deep fear within his soul. Ellison was meant to have these gifts for a very specific reason.

“Chief, you said these senses were a good thing. But in my experience, all good things come with a price. Care to share?” Jim smirked as Blair smiled widely.

  
“I am so glad you asked that, man. Zone outs. They are just one of two problems I read about and figured would give any Sentinel trouble.” Blair leaned forward a bit. “They are a bit difficult to explain… um… well when a Sentinel is working his deal, you know using his sight or hearing to catch a bead on his prey? Yeah well he can sort of miss out with his other senses… Kind of like Tunnel-vision, but it could be any sense, not just vision - get me?"

“So like, what? They just stop working?” Jim sat forward, his elbows on his knees yet again. “That doesn’t sound too safe to me, Doc.”

Blair sputtered. “Well, yeah but… well that’s why the Sentinel has his partner, a companion who went along and made sure that he didn’t focus too hard on just one sense.”

Jim nodded, his eyes squinting in a not quite understanding gesture. Blair waited for him to ask. “So, where do I get me one of these companions?”

Blair sighed. “I don’t know. But I’ll help you find one. It’ll have to be someone you can trust to know your secret.”

Jim snorted and rolled his eyes. He said dryly, "That kinda goes without saying Sandburg."

Blair reviewed mentally what he'd just said and wanted the ground to swallow him up, “Oh man... You have an edge. One that could mean the life or death of an individual by finding things faster than forensics could ever do. You’re a human crime lab with organic surveillance equipment.”

Jim frowned. “And no control.”

“Well yeah, for now.” agreed Blair, “But we can fix that. We just need to work it out, testing, I have some ideas that we could try.”

“So, if I’m playing guinea pig, what do you get out of this?” Jim asked as he sat back in the chair, tension apparent in every line of his body and gleaming in his eyes. Blair knew this was going to be a hard sell, the man in front of him still had no real reason to trust him - in fact most of his life experience to date would tell him to do the exact opposite.

'Just the facts and nothing but the facts Blair' he reminded himself, and then had to stifle the chuckle that wanted to escape as it brought to mind the stupid 'Joe Friday' crack from his dream last night.

Getting ahold of himself Blair said it as plainly as he could, "My doctorate, and possibly being able to help others out there that are like you that have been misdiagnosed. If I can write my diss - er Dissertation, about you along with all the other case studies I have about the one and two enhanced sensed people out there..."

Jim was nodding. Blair knew he would understand, he dealt with lawyers and precedents enough that it wasn't that alien a concept for him. But was it enough to sway him… Blair checked his watch and noticed that an hour had gone by and they were still talking. He had nothing else to do that day, but he would have to get home to Larry soon. He thought that now would be a good time to end this first session. He stood slowly, stretching his legs as he went. Jim looked up at him and stood as well.

“So, I know you have a lot to think about, man. And I don’t want you to feel pressured about it.” Blair waved a hand towards the door. “Why don’t you go home and think all this over. Call me in a day or two when you've processed, or if you still have questions or concerns."

Jim smiled, a bit distractedly as he headed for the door, Blair’s hand on the small of his back, guiding him out. The big man turned to Blair and smiled once more. “Thank you, for telling me about all this. I’ll… um… yeah, call. Yeah, I’ll call once I’ve thought about everything okay?”

Blair nodded and then Jim was gone. The young man smiled again and sighed happily. Not too bad, despite the bumps along the way. All in all a decent first meeting. He grinned as he looked around the room, wondering how much of the paperwork he could get home.

The grin fell away as his ears picked up the faint cry of a wolf… his lips curving downward into a frown as he heard the snarl of what sounded like a jungle cat.

 _*Jim stops in the middle of the road to watch a frisbee go by and doesn't hear the garbage truck headed for him or the horn.*_

“Shit, the Frisbee!” Blair pelted from the room at breakneck speed.

o-O-o

He was up the stairs to street level in minutes. His legs having carried him down the virtually empty halls and out the front door in no time at all.

There he caught sight of his Sentinel, standing in the middle of the road, his body stance telling Blair that the man was no longer noticing anything around him.

Cursing inwardly, he threw caution to the wind, dashed down the front steps and tackled the other man, sending them both under the truck that thundered above them.

“Jeez, that sucked man!” Blair said shaking himself off. Then he looked around, ‘Uh oh, too much exposure.’ They’d drawn a bit of attention with their stunt and now Blair wanted to get out of the limelight.

Thankfully, somewhere during the tackle and the truck, Jim came back to life, shaking his head and getting slowly back to his feet. Blair stayed right with him, helping him and ushering him off the street. He waved the driver away, his lips turned down in a frown.

“Come on, Jim. Let’s go this way. We can get my bag later, but right now we need to disappear.” Blair murmured for the Sentinel’s ears only as he led the big man in the direction of the marketplace.

While they walked, Jim seemed to relax more and more, his hand on Blair’s shoulder turning from a clutch to a gentle resting place, steering the younger man down one aisle and across to another. Soon they were both strolling towards the fresh produce as if they were just two pals out for an afternoon of shopping. Eventually, Jim spoke his thoughts.

“So, that was one of those, whatchamacallits… Zone outs?” he asked casually, but with a healthy dose of concern evident in his voice. Blair nodded.

“What do you remember?” asked the young man. He glanced back at Jim’s silence, urging him with his eyes to open up. Jim shrugged.

“I was looking at the kids with the Frisbee, and it was so bright red that I… guess I got too focused on the boldness of the color.” Jim finished sheepishly.

“That’s why you need a companion with you, especially now when you haven’t learned control.” Blair stopped in the middle of the aisle, his eyes alight with concern. “Jim, you have to trust me on this. It’s a serious business. And until we can figure out if we can make them go away, we have to teach you control. You are on line, no off switch to be seen.”

“Ok, so… maybe you can be my companion for a while? Just until we find someone else who can help?” Jim asked. Blair blushed as he ducked his head in obvious amusement. He sobered quickly though, bringing his head back up to meet Jim’s eyes.

“I’ll help you, not a problem. But you have to trust me, no hiding things when something is bothering you. And we will have to do tests. I need to know just how strong you are, how acute these senses of yours really are.”

Jim nodded. “I promise, Chief. So where do we start?”

Blair glanced around, catching sight of a flower stand a couple of aisles over. “Ok, let’s start with this. There is a flower stand a little bit over and behind you. Try to smell for roses in the bunch. It’s easily recognizable and you shouldn’t have any trouble sifting through scents to find it.”

Jim nodded, one hand still on Blair’s shoulder and with eyes closed, he went silent. Blair waited, trying not to shift from foot to foot impatiently. Suddenly he felt a hand on his other shoulder and caught the sound of cautious giggling.

“Hey, Blair.” Was whispered into his left ear and he glanced back to see one of his friends from class. She and her girlfriend smiled as they came around to where he could see them without craning his neck. He smiled delightedly.

“Oh, hey, how you doing?”

She smiled, flipping her blonde hair back out of her eyes. “Missed you at the meeting on Wednesday.”

Blair grimaced as he remembered who he'd been with and what he'd been doing on Wednesday. Man, he probably would've been better off going to the meeting that night after all, “Yeah. You'll let me share your notes?”

With a smirk and a suggestive wink she appeared to give it some thought before saying, “Maybe. Call me.” And then she walked away with her friend.

Blair thought about the conversation for a moment, finding himself distracted by the sight of a large black cat sitting on a stack of crates over the blonde’s left shoulder. It swiped one of its paws at her head, hissing in anger.

Before he could question the scene before him, Jim grasped his shoulder gently and pulled his attention back to the big man. “Hey...I think it's working.”

Blair grinned stupidly. “That’s great man. That stand must be about a hundred yards away!”

He glanced back at the two girls when he heard a dog bark from the direction. The cat was now on the ground and a grey dog stood beside him, growling at the girls. But neither woman seemed to notice the two odd animals. Jim must have noticed his distracted air, because he leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"Those girls over there are talking about you, the blond thinks you're adorable and wants you to ask her out."

Blair looked up at him in surprise. "She does? Really? She wants me to ask her out?"

Jim nodded back at him. Blair ducked his head to hide the blush that rose from his neck up to his hairline. He glanced back up at Jim to confirm. "She really said adorable?"

Jim nodded again, causing Blair to grin stupidly. "Well gotta admit, it's nicer than Dork which is what I usually hear. - anyway, let's go." He moved off leaving Jim to stare back at him narrowly. He wasn’t really interested in the girls. They were nice, but he had a job to do.

Jim followed behind; face clearly expressing how strange he thought his new companion truly was.

o-O-o

The next day Blair received a phone call from Jim. _*”Hey, you said that I could be a human crime lab right?”*_

Blair didn’t know where this was going but answered simply, “Well with enough practice yeah, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be. Why?”

 _*“I got a crime scene to go over, the last explosion site actually. I want to take a ‘special’ look around, see if there was anything left behind, know what I mean? So would you mind coming with me? It’ll give us a chance to try out that partner thing already.”*_

Blair checked his schedule and seeing he was free, agreed. After only a few more hours work, they’d knocked off for the night and parted ways fairly early the night before and so he was pretty fresh. Though he’d actually suggested they stop when they did for Jim’s sake, the last thing Blair wanted was for the older man to get worn out or start feeling like a lab rat.

So that afternoon found them at the lumber mill, which was now so much kindling and mud. Jim and Blair exited the jeep together, Blair pulling a tape recorder out of his pocket. He stopped before turning it on.

“Hey Jim, do you mind if I take some notes while we work? I know you haven’t decided yet if I can write about you, but this is just to keep a reference on what your senses can do.” Jim glanced back at his companion and appeared rather pensive for a moment.

“Yeah, sure. Just, you know, be careful with names and such.” Jim turned back to his study of the wood before him, picking up a metal piece that could have been a license plate cover from one of the vehicles from inside. Blair nodded to himself as he followed along behind, watching his footing and reaching a hand out to Jim to keep him focused.

“Not a problem. I’ll call you ‘Subject 5-A’ for the time being. Just to keep names out of it. Trust me, it’s as specific as I’m gonna get.” Blair grinned as Jim reached out a hand to help him over a log.

Jim snickered as he stepped over a board. “What’s the 5-A about?”

Blair followed carefully and answered, “Reference numbers. I have many reference subjects with one or two senses. So to keep them all straight, I might say that Subject 1-A has only one sense enhanced. While I have two subjects with two enhanced senses, I can’t very well call them Subject 2 and 3, they would have to be separated in some way. So I would say that the first with two senses is Subject 2-A and the second with two would be Subject 2-B.”

Jim slowed, reaching a hand out to help Blair over yet another pile of debris. “So, following that train of thought, you call me 5-A because I’m the first person you have met with all five senses?”

“Yup. This is the best way to keep things straight. You aren’t the first subject I have worked with for a paper.” Blair paused. “Just the most important.”

Jim nodded and they struck off, digging deeper into the mess left behind by the character that was being called the Switchman by the media. Blair didn’t know all the particulars to the case, but he knew that Jim had spent a week staking out this place alone. He had theorized that it might have been this isolation that had triggered Jim’s senses. When Jim had explained about falling off the bike, Blair had grilled him on the particulars for a few minutes, finally coming up with the explanation that Jim had spiked on sight and zoned out from the reflection, thus sending him to the ground. This seemed to make Jim feel marginally better about having lost the suspect, but he was still wondering what the site would tell them.

Finally Blair called a halt to their traipsing around in the muck and pulled a bottle of water from his pack, taking a sip and handing a fresh bottle to Jim to do the same. “Ok, we may be going about this all wrong. The place was taken out by a bomb, right? Bombs don’t just go out, this place also went up.”

“So, maybe I should be looking in all directions, not just looking on the ground?” asked Jim after taking a healthy gulp of water. He nodded and glanced up at the sky, around to the top of the building and flinched as if something had grated on his hearing. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted a bird landing on a piece of wood near the top of a pile, pull something off and fly with it to a tree not so far away. Blair followed his head movements, not sure what the other man as seeing. Jim turned back to Blair with a grin. “How good are you at climbing trees?”

Blair glared at his partner. “Jim, last time I was in a tree, I fell out and broke my arm. Was in a cast for six weeks.”

Jim snickered. “How old were you?”

“I was nine or ten… my mother had a fit.” Blair gazed up at the branches looking for a good starting point. Jim slipped up behind him, murmuring in his ear.

“I’ll catch you if you fall, buddy. Don’t worry.” Jim grinned as Blair glared back at him.

“You better.” He sighed as he made his way to the trunk.

o-O-o

Blair stretched himself across the branch towards the nest that Jim had seen the bird fly to, carefully dislodging it from the crook of the branch and glancing down at Jim before tossing it to him. “Heads Up!”

Jim caught the nest, set it down and moved to catch Blair as he slid back off the branch and inched towards the ground. Once they were both down, Jim went and picked up the nest again, looking through it and picking out the bit of blue that he had seen the bird carrying.

Blair peered over his arm at the nest. Jim showed him the blue thread. “The bomber was wearing a blue watch cap when he went into the mill.”

Blair stared at the thread, and then the nest, muttering aloud as he thought. “So maybe the hat was inside when the place blew and the bird found the pickings up in the beams where forensics missed them. I mean, the nest isn't finished which would definitely suggest that the time frame would work there.”

Jim stared at him a moment. Bair shrugged. “What? Part of your job is walking into a place and trying to figure out what happened there. So is mine. It's just that mine are usually a few thousand years vacant.”

Jim snickered as he sniffed the thread, his face scrunching up in concentration. Blair watched for a moment before asking, “What is it? You got something?”

Jim snarled before answering, “Yeah, it's, uh, shampoo or uh...”

“Aftershave...” prompted Blair. Jim shook his head.

"No, it’s much more complicated… It smells like… jungle plants.” Jim turned to Blair with an expectant look on his face. Blair gazed off into the distance for a moment, then nodded.

“Right, let’s go. Bring that and we can compare it to scents at a couple of specialty shops I know of in the mall.” Blair turned and headed towards the jeep, his pack on his shoulder and his steps sure. Jim shrugged and followed along after.

o-O-o

Jim led the way into his loft, Blair coming up behind him with one hand steady on his back. Gently he herded the big man to the nearest soft surface, which happened to be a beige couch facing a row of windows that led to a balcony and a spectacular view of the sound. Blair suppressed the urge to whistle at the fabulous sight.

Once Jim was seated, Blair shuffled into the efficient, yet tiny kitchen and pulled out a tea kettle he found in one of the cabinets. He muttered softly as he worked, using soothing tones to calm the Sentinel, who lay his head against the back of the couch and was breathing as slowly as he could.

“Just take it easy man, I’ll have this done in a second. I’m so sorry it took us so many tries to find the right place with those scents.” Blair poured water into the kettle and set it on the burner to boil while he pulled a bag of loose leaf tea from his pack, measuring out a sufficient amount into his diffuser and setting it in one of Jim’s cups. Jim waved a hand distractedly.

“Not your fault, Chief. It was a good idea, and it got us that list of names we can run into the computer at the station.” Jim subsided into silence as he resumed his deep, even breathing as Blair set about making the tea.

“Yeah well, a headache is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a Sentinel.” Blair came to sit next to Jim, cup in hand. “It’s a bit bitter, but it will work to ease that pain to something more manageable.”

Jim took the cup with a weak smile, “Couldn’t I just take some pain reliever? Aspirin maybe?”

Blair shook his head and directed the cup to Jim’s lips. “I wouldn’t want to have to go through the ingredients list right now. This will work faster. Trust me, all of the chemicals in western medicine will send your senses off the charts until you get control.”

Jim nodded and sipped the tea, taking a moment to make a face at the bitterness, but continuing to drink anyway. Blair smiled as he glanced around the loft, taking in every nook and cranny. Jim watched him for a moment. “I know, it’s not much. My Ex-wife, Carolyn, took most of it with her when she left. Not that her taste and mine ever really meshed.”

“I think its fine,” stated Blair. “It’s quiet here, with the sound of the water across the way. And you’re on a near silent street so traffic isn’t going to grate on your ears. The colors are neutral, not glaring and harsh to your eyes. The place smells very clean. But I wouldn’t recommend you keep using the bleach.”

Jim looked at him in surprise. Blair grinned. “When we can settle a bit more, I’ll try to come up with some cleansers that won’t irritate your skin and sense of smell.”

“So you’re saying that all this, the loft and the surroundings, it’s normal?” Jim asked.

“Sure, minimal stimuli to jar the senses and set you on edge. Your territory is where you should be able to rest, relax. How can you if it’s always blindsiding you?” Blair sat back and relaxed with Jim at his side. He yawned once, covering his mouth politely. Jim snickered.

“You have trouble sleeping last night, Sandburg?” he asked as Blair waved him off.

“Yeah, my roommate had me up all night. Damn, but he can be a pain sometimes.” Blair blinked owlishly at his friend for a moment. Jim sighed and leaned against the couch cushions again, breathing in steadily. Blair reached out a hand and gently smoothed his fingers over the wrinkled skin of the Sentinel’s brow.

Jim sighed and leaned into the touch, unconsciously allowing Blair to relieve some of the tension still running through him. Blair chuckled lazily, "That's good Jim, in through the nose slow and deep, let the familiar scents of your home help soothe that nasty headache you got going there."

Following Blair's subtle vocal direction into a light meditation, Jim took in more cleansing breathes, using the scents in his territory to cut through the pain and regain his equilibrium. As he fell further and further into the trance, neither man noticed when Jim began to slide sideways into Blair, until his nose was buried in soft curls and he was nearly asleep.

Blair, suddenly finding himself pinned to the couch by 200-220 pounds of sleeping detective, chuckled at the absurdity of the situation and was all prepared to settle in for a nap of his own. But then he was reminded of the note that Jim said he had found in his e-mail the day before.

 _* "Dear Detective Ellison: Today I bought my ticket. Tomorrow I ride to the end of the line. The Switchman."*_

With a deep sigh of his own, he began to poke at Jim’s shoulder, muttering as he did so.

“Hey, wake up. Ok, I’ve been likened to a teddy bear in the past, but this is ridiculous. Wakey wakey, Jim. We have a bad guy to find, remember?” Blair poked once more and chuckled when Jim’s head came up with a start. Jim stared back at Blair, a flush of embarrassment coloring his features.

“Ah, sorry about that, uh, Chief…” he stammered as he carefully disentangled himself from Blair. The young man smiled openly.

“Not a problem man. I kinda figured you had… um… added me unconsciously to your mental imprint… It’s no big deal. When we find your partner, you can imprint on them fully and wipe me out of your memories.” Blair slid off the couch and stretched his legs as he stood. Jim watched him curiously for a moment.

“Imprint?” Jim asked. Blair nodded as he walked over to pick up his pack.

“Yeah, I had a theory from reading some of Burton’s notes that a Sentinel usually imprinted his territory and his companion in his mind using all his senses. So that, if something happened later, he could use his companions scent, or touch, as a guide to settle his baseline again.” He pulled the list from his pack that they had gotten from the girl at the specialty shop who did combination scents for customers and sat on the couch again next to Jim. Glancing at the big detective, he laid a reassuring hand on his thigh. “It’s no big deal, Jim. I’m rather flattered that you feel comfortable enough with me to trust me in your territory. And I’m not wigged out by the imprinting.”

Jim stared hard at his companion, plainly not believing him if the expression on his face was any indication. Blair might not have been ‘wigged out’, but Jim was another story. Blair shrugged and grinned. “Hey, when you live with my mother, you get over yourself pretty quickly. Now, let’s see if you recognize any names on this list.”

Jim sighed, clearly tabling the discussion for another time as he glanced over the names. One of them must have twigged his memory because he suddenly snatched up the cordless phone by his side and punched in a number. Blair watched him for a moment, listening in to one side of the conversation and wishing he were half the Sentinel that Jim was to hear the other half as well.

“Yeah, thanks Simon, I’d appreciate it.” Jim hung up the phone. Turning to Blair, he grimaced. “The name Veronica Sarris struck a chord. Her father served with me in my Special Forces unit. He died in Peru.”

“Maybe she believes you were responsible for her father’s death, rather than the circumstances? So she’s sending you messages with the bombings.” Blair sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. “Can Simon get a warrant for her?”

“Not with the lack of evidence we have. The thread we found in the nest would have to be tested, and as you said before, that takes more time than we have to devote to this.” Jim picked up the phone again. Blair glanced over at him.

“So, what do we do now? Give up?” Jim glared at him ruefully before speaking into the phone.

“Is this Cascade Harbor Tours? Yes, I need to locate one of your tour guides. Veronica Sarris.” Blair smiled as he grabbed his coat and prepared to chase off to wherever with Jim. They had a lead and they would simply have to strike off on their own.

o-O-o

As they pulled up to Cascade Tower, Blair grabbed Jim’s arm, keeping him in the jeep. “Jim hold up a moment. Let’s not run into this blind.”

Jim nodded and exited the jeep, coming back around to Blair’s side and settling a hand on his shoulder. Blair explained, “You have Veronica’s scent, it’s unique. Sift through and catalogue everything you smell. All the normal scents, push them away, all the ones you expect to be here. Search for hers alone.”

Jim nodded again, closing his eyes and gripping Blair’s jacket, keeping it as a focal point. He used Blair’s scent to wash away all the other scents around him, and then stretched further, seeking the unique scent that he remembered from the shop.

Suddenly, whipping his head around, he locked eyes on her just as she stepped on to a nearby tour bus. He let go of Blair and quickly made his way over, leaping onto the bus and grabbing her arm, snapping her around to face him. She struggled with him, snarling as he twisted her arms behind her and began to cuff her.

“Blair, get everyone off the bus!” Jim yelled as he crowded the young woman against the railing. Blair jumped on at the back door and began to usher men, women and children out and away from the vehicle. Veronica glared at the detective, anger evident in her stance. He held her tightly as he ordered, “Tell me where it is Veronica! I know it’s here somewhere.”

Blair came up behind him, peering over his shoulder and staring at the woman, silently begging her to tell them what they needed to know. She snarled, spitting at Jim and struggling to get free. “Find it.” She hissed.

“Tell me!” admonished Jim. Blair reached around and took the phone from Jim’s pocket, hitting speed dial and asking for the Captain. This was about to get messy unless they hurried. They had no idea how long they had to find the bomb and diffuse it. Jim argued with Veronica while Blair relayed their position to Banks, who promised to get a team there immediately.

“You better hurry man, I have no idea what she had planned, but I think she intended to die with it.” Blair hung up and turned back to Jim as he yelled at the woman again.

“Your father was my friend. I never hurt him. I tried to save his life, Veronica, you've got to believe that. Now, where's that bomb?” Jim pleaded. But Veronica wasn’t about to help him. She smirked up at him, her deranged mind finishing the plot out loud.

“Tick, tick… Times up.” She closed her eyes. Jim glanced back at Blair, who shrugged and looked around once.

“It could be anywhere, man.” He replied to Jim’s unasked question. Jim turned back to Veronica and came to some sort of decision. He wrapped her arms around the central pole of bus and cuffed her to it, frisked her quickly now that he was able to do so, found her gun and some other surprises. After disarming her he then turned back to Blair.

“Help me.” He pleaded. Blair nodded and laid a hand on his arm.

“Use your ears, not your eyes. Center your sense of smell on me, as a ground, then cast out your hearing. Listen for the timer.” Blair held back then, saying nothing and allowing Jim to close his eyes and concentrate. Behind him, he heard the approving yip of the wolf, but he ignored it, keeping his attention on the man before him. Jim slowly began to move, cutting all other sounds out but the ticking of the clock, his sense of smell grounded to Blair’s unique scent.

The sound of several police vehicles screeching onto the scene were virtually ignored by the Sentinel as he unerringly homed in on the bomb, pulling it gently from its hiding place under one of the seats near the back. There were five minutes left on the digital timer and Blair stifled a gasp at how close they came. Turning, he looked over his shoulder to find a portly man pulling on bomb gear and preparing to enter the bus. He waved to gain the man’s attention and pointed over Jim’s shoulder. He got a nod in return.

Within moments, Jim was handing the bomb off to the other man and stepping back with Blair to give him plenty of room. Wasting no time, the bomb squad officer took the bomb and placed it in a concrete cylinder, then locked the entire thing in a larger casing that was designed to contain the explosion. There was really no time to study and diffuse the bomb, so they didn’t even try.

As the last second ticked off, Jim pushed Blair back, shielding him with his own body. Blair reached up and placed his hands over Jim’s ears and they both heard the muffled bang of the explosion. The thunderous applause afterwards was far more deafening.

o-O-o

Blair sighed as he finally closed the door behind him and snapped on the lights in his home. It had been a long, eventful day, leading into a long uneventful night of evidence gathering and statement taking. He had to help Jim fudge his report, to make it convincing, and that had been quite a ride in and of its self.

Jim had introduced him to the Bomb squad captain, Joel Taggart. This was the man who had actually taken the bomb from Jim when they were on the bus. He was a nice older man and Blair felt they could be friends any other time. His mother would have freaked.

The other man that Jim had him met was Simon Banks, Jim’s Captain and best friend. Jim had introduced Blair as his “New Partner” and told Simon that they would have a lot to discuss later on. Blair was not sure he was looking forward to this, but it wasn’t like he had a choice.

Finally, just before Blair had left Jim for the day, promising that he would have plenty of time to talk to Jim the next day about getting a partner for the Sentinel; the detective had given his consent for Blair to write the dissertation about his senses. But it was with a strong promise to let Jim read it before Blair even thought of publishing. Blair had agreed. It was more than fair, after all it was the man's life.

Now, alone in his home, except for Larry, Blair was able to take a deep breath and take stock of his situation. He had found a Sentinel. And things had gone almost like they had in the dream. Now that it was over, Blair felt the need to Meditate and bring order to the entire week that had passed. He wasted no time in getting the candles and other things he would need, sinking down into a light trance in front of the lit candles.

One thing he realized right away, almost as soon as he went under, was that he had been much calmer than his dream self had been. He had taken the time necessary to center himself, and that had gone a long way towards preparing him for the run that he had endured with Jim. Instead of stammering and freaking out at such things as tree climbing, guns and bombs that nearly went off, he had calmly and rationally lead the fledgling Sentinel through the use of his senses and they had come out better on the other side. He smiled a thank you to his two spirit animals for all their help, chuckling as the wolf yipped and the panther yawned.

He was living in an interesting time. He was walking a tightrope, balancing the knowledge of the prophetic dreams in his subconscious with reality as it happened, and knew he could be blindsided at any time during this adventure. He felt just a bit overwhelmed with the challenge. But, then too, he would never have given up this chance. Not in a million years.

Only time would tell if his endeavors would yield a higher crop in this life than the previous one. He still worried about how it was only flashes that he got, not getting a full picture until it was almost too late. But he felt confident in his desire to stay the chosen course. All would come out as it should, as long as he persevered.

After another hour of reflection, Blair blew out the candles and went to feed Larry, preparing to crawl into bed and sleep deeply. Tomorrow was looking to be a day filled with paperwork of all types, according to Jim. Blair smiled. He couldn’t wait!  



End file.
